California Hiring and Firing Update 2010: New Traps, New Laws

Overview

Why You Should Attend

Each year brings new challenges to employers, and nothing is more important than the beginning and the end of an employment relationship. In 2010, a host of new state and federal employment and labor law obligations will affect the way all employers, employers’ counsel, human resources professionals and managers conduct their business.

Please join an experienced faculty of employment law attorneys for this new program.  Learn about all of the new legal developments affecting the hiring and termination of employment process, and obtain practical guidance for handling the most troublesome and recurring issues. This program and the developments to be addressed has important implications for both plaintiff/employee and defendant/employer practitioners.

What You Will Learn

• Latest developments regarding independent contractor versus employee issues 
• Conducting effective and legally compliant background checks, and maintaining applicant flow data
• Avoiding discrimination claims in the hiring and firing process, including legally permissible and impermissible inquiries
• The importance of preserving “at-will” employment relationships, and employment contract/offer letter drafting suggestions
• Wage and hour compliance requirements, including exempt classifications, time recording, meal and rest break compliance suggestions
• Protecting and preserving company intellectual property and trade secrets
• ADEA/OWBPA release of claims compliance issues
• Handling severance pay and tax withholding and reporting obligations
• Practical compliance and litigation avoidance suggestions

Who Should Attend

In-house counsel and outside counsel who represent employers, employee attorneys, human resources professionals and managers will benefit from attending this program.

Special Features

Live Webcast - Simultaneous live webcast of the San Francisco session is available for individual viewing. Webcast participants will receive streaming audio and/or video of the program, view and print the Course Handbook, and have the ability to submit questions electronically.
 
For more information click on the Live Webcast link in the Related Items box.

Special Bonus to all Registrants

All attendees receive a complimentary copy of PLI's comprehensive Course Handbook. This softcover, bound volume was written to augment this program and to stand alone as a permanent reference. PLI's Course Handbooks represent the definitive thinking of the nation's finest legal minds, and are often the standard reference in the field.

Please Note: Webcast attendees will receive a downloadable version of the Handbook one business day prior to the program.

PLI Group Discounts

Groups of 4-14 from the same organization, all registering at the same time, for a PLI program scheduled for presentation at the same site, are entitled to receive a group discount. For further discount information, please contact membership@pli.edu or call (800) 260-4PLI.

PLI Can Arrange Group Viewing to Your Firm

Contact the Groupcasts Department via email at groupcasts@pli.edu for more details.

Cancellations

All cancellations received 3 business days prior to the program will be refunded 100%. If you do not cancel within the allotted time period, payment is due in full. You may substitute another individual to attend the program at any time.

Schedule

Morning Session:  9:00am - 12:30pm

9:00  Program Overview

Tyler M. Paetkau

9:15  Hiring Issues and Trends

• Recruiting tips and traps for the unwary employer
• Applications - what information to seek
• Interview questions and techniques to avoid liability
• Background checks - what to request, where to look and legal compliance issues
• Whether and how employers can use MySpace™, Facebook® and other Social Networking websites
• At-will employment
• I-9 compliance
• Independent contract versus employee issues
• Offer letters and employment contracts

Kathryn Kaep Morrison, Ann M. O’Regan, Tyler M. Paetkau, Andrea Kelly Smethurst

10:15  Networking Break

10:30  Other Issues to Consider at the Hiring Stage

• Proper classification of employees for wage-hour exemption purposes
• Meal and rest break compliance
• Drug testing and medical examinations
• Checking references (and providing them on former employees)
• Collecting applicant flow data for EEO compliance purposes
• Arbitration and other ADR

 Matthew Marca, Gabriela B. Odell, David Y. Otsuka, Andrea Kelly Smethurst

11:30  Issues Affecting the Hiring and Firing Process

• Record keeping requirements - electronic records systems
• Required postings in the workplace
• Monitoring employees’ email and privacy issues
• Retaining and motivating quality employees
• Employee training
• Handling leaves of absence
• Thoughtful internal policies, including Employee Handbook
• Union avoidance

Kathryn Kaep Morrison, Gabriela B. Odell, Ann M. O’Regan

12:30  Lunch Break

Afternoon Session:  1:45pm - 5:00pm

1:45  Protecting Employer Assets and Avoiding Unfair Competition Claims

• Screening of new employees
• Identifying and protecting trade secrets
• Drafting enforceable restrictive covenants
• Handling cross-state and international restrictive covenants and choice of law
• Practical tips to avoid unfair competition claims

Michael F. Donner, Louisa Holzschuher, Tyler M. Paetkau, Karen E. C. Sullivan

2:45  Networking Break

3:00  Planning for Termination

• Performance counseling tips
• Planning for and conducting defensible workplace investigations
• Performance improvement plans
• Planning for a reduction-in-force
• Avoiding, preventing and responding to  workplace violence

Roderick P. Bushnell, Kathryn Kaep Morrison, Ann M. O’Regan, Andrea Kelly Smethurst, Stephen G. White
 
4:00  Termination of Employment

• Legal obligations, including payment of last wages, return of company property and COBRA
• Severance and release agreements - requirements and traps for the unwary employer
• RIFs and disparate impact analysis
• Handling particularly difficult and/or sensitive terminations
• Responding to threatened claims and claims

Matthew Marca, Gabriela B. Odell, Ann M. O’Regan, Tyler M. Paetkau

5:00  Adjourn

Faculty

Chairperson(s)

Tyler M. Paetkau, Harnett, Smith & Associates

Speaker(s)

Roderick P. Bushnell, Bushnell Caplan & Fielding, LLP
Michael F. Donner, Stein & Lubin LLP
Karen E.C. Sullivan, Former Director, Employment & Benefits Law Group, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Louisa Holzschuher, Director of Employment Law and Assistant General Counsel, Juniper Networks, Inc.
Andrea Kelly Smethurst, Andrea Kelly Smethurst Law, P.C.
Matthew Marca, Littler Mendelson, P.C.
Kathryn K. Morrison, Vice President, Associate General Counsel, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Ann M. O'Regan, Senior Employment Counsel, Bechtel Corporation
Gabriela B. Odell, Assistant Laboratory Counsel, Lawrence Livermore National Lab
David Y. Otsuka, Managing Counsel, Wells Fargo Law Department
Stephen G. White, Ph. D., President, WTS Inc.

Program Attorney(s)

John M. Mola, Practising Law Institute

CLE Credit

Travel Information

San Francisco Seminar Location

PLI California Center, 685 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94105. (415) 498-2800.

San Francisco Hotel Accommodations

The Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94105. Call (800) 917-7456 seven days a week from 6:00 am to 12:00 am (PDT) and mention you are attending this program at Practising Law Institute to receive the preferred rate. For online reservations, go to www.sfpalace.com/pli to receive the preferred rate.

Due to high demand we recommend reserving hotel rooms as early as possible.